Fish rain down on Top End town of Lajamanu

FISH have fallen from the sky onto a Top End town - not once but twice.

FISH have fallen from the sky onto a Top End town - not once but twice.

The Northern Territory News reports the freak phenomena happened on Thursday and Friday afternoon at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine.

Local Christine Balmer said "hundreds and hundreds" of small white fish had fallen from the sky.

"Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere.

"These fish were alive when they hit the ground."

Lajamanu sits on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometres from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliott and even further from the coast.

But in 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a similar incident captured international headlines.

Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region, but there were no reports of one.

"With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet," he said.

Read more and see pictures of the fish that fell from the sky at the Northern Territory News